| Mandriva unfurls services for apps, system management |
May 19, 2006
[Corrected May 20]: Mandriva Linux released a pair of new services this week. Mandriva Kiosk is a web-based, click-through software installation service, similar in many ways to Linspire's "Click N Run" (CNR), while Mandriva Pulse is the company's new open source system for deploying and managing Linux on large, complex networks, the company said.
Mandriva Kiosk
Mandriva Kiosk, which debuted in beta form as Mandriva Kiosk Lite on April 25, provides access to the latest versions of the most popular applications through a simple installation process requiring little or no technical acumen, according to the company.
Mandriva Club members at the standard level (about $60 per year, or the equivalent in Euros) and above now have access to Mandriva Kiosk.
"This new service makes it as simple as one click (plus your root password!) to install 'bundles' of software, such as KDE 3.5 and OpenOffice.org 2.0," Mandriva said. "Mandriva Kiosk currently contains i586 (not x86-64) bundles of KDE 3.5, OpenOffice.org 2.0, GNOME 2.12 and Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird 1.5, and is supported under Mandriva Linux 2006 Official and Mandriva One 2006."
Madriva CEO François Bancilhon told DesktopLinux.com via email that "[club members] will have access to a catalog of 'bundles' (applications), [which] you can download and install in one single click. Of course, everything has been QA'ed by our teams and integrates nicely with Mandriva," he said.
How similar is Mandriva Kiosk to Linspire's CNR? "[The] objective is the same: Make the life of people simple and easy," Bancilhon said. "The key differentiator is the size of what we manage."
Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony was split on the question of whether Kiosk is a knockoff of CLR.
"Conceptually yes, functionally no," Carmony told DesktopLinux.com via email. "Not surprisingly the concept and objectives are the same, because it's the logical way to install software. However, CNR has thousands of titles (not just a dozen or so), as well as user reviews, product pages, commercial titles, 'Aisles,' profiles, and many more features Mandriva isn't offering.
"It's no surprise that other Linux distributions see the value in adding something like CNR to their distributions," Carmony added. "We knew when we pioneered the concept of one-click software management five years ago for desktop Linux, that it is how all software will one day be delivered. Don't be surprised when Microsoft adds CNR-like features into Windows one day, as it makes the overall user experience so much easier and painless."
Mandriva Pulse
Mandriva Pulse makes it easier to deploy Mandriva Linux -- or even other distributions, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux -- across a wide network of machines, the company said.
Pulse can also manage Windows systems during the transition to Linux, and the company said it will be distributed and supported both directly by Mandriva and through a network of authorized resellers. The Pulse software itself is entirely free and has no license fee: Mandriva and its partners will instead charge for training, service and support in deploying Pulse.
Pulse relies on the Ruby programming language, agent technology, and on Mandriva's own installer for the management of package dependencies, the company said. Go here for download information.
[Editor's note: This story was corrected to include that Mandriva Standard Club members, not only Silver Club members, now have access to Kiosk.]
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